Thursday, June 05, 2008

We've come a long way, baby!!!

A long way from singing spirituals and songs of triumph in the cotton and tobacco fields of the South.A long way from singing hymns in stuffy one room churches without musical instruments.A long way from singing the blues in the jook joints and liquor houses. A long way from performing concerts for segregated audiences. A long way from having some of the most popular songs stolen and performed for a "mainstream" audience.Now, we're singing in massive sanctuaries with 100-voice choirs and in front of thousands in coliseums and arenas and even millions on television. And now, we wish a playa would take even part of a song without discussing royalties.All of this and so much more tells the story of the evolution of black music to what it is today. For the next 25 days, I will do my best to bring you tid bits and snippets of some of the best black music has to offer.Though a lot of the pioneers have passed on, their music lives on and will continue to do so as long as we appreciate good music.I'd love to be able to tell ya'll that I did a boat load of research and this whole series will be in order by year and genre. I can't tell you that because I didn't do that. I'd love to tell you that I have it mapped out day by day how I'm going to attack this monster, but I don't. All I can tell you is I have several posts coming that will be about gospel, neo-soul, rock n' roll, R&B, maybe some hip hop if I can convince Eb the Celeb to bless my spot and be a guest blogger on the subject (I haven't asked yet) and probably even a little bit of country. And before you ask, yes, there are some black folks who write, perform and listen to country music.I will also do a couple of specialty posts that will include some of my favorite artists that you've probably never heard of and the one I'm doing later today, singer/songwriters.I'm open to all sorts of ideas as it relates to my Black Music Month posts. Hit me up in the comment section or shoot me an e-mail and I'll respond. Enjoy!